Abby Wambach be the Lancers' honorary captain at their Feb. 24 match at Blue Cross Arena and address the crowd at halftime.

Pittsford native and United States soccer star Abby Wambach will be the honorary captain at the Rochester Lancers’ match on Feb. 24 at Blue Cross Arena at the Community War Memorial. The Lancers, who are in their second season, will likely be fighting for a Major Indoor Soccer League playoff berth in their 4 p.m. home finale against defending league champion Milwaukee. They’ll honor the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year during a halftime ceremony in her first appearance in Rochester since winning the award. Wambach will do a meet-and-greet with fans from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. It’s only for “golden” (lifetime) season-ticket holders and season-ticket holders who renew for next season. The first 100 fans who buy a Lancers’ three-pack for final three games of season (cost: $75) also will receive an exclusive autograph pass. Call (585) 872-5425 for more information or to buy tickets. She will be around her hometown a lot this summer because she’s playing for the Western New York Flash in the new National Women’s Soccer League. The 32-year-old Our Lady of Mercy High School graduate is just six goals shy of tying Mia Hamm’s world record of 158. She didn’t score in the Americans’ 4-1 win over Scotland in their first exhibition match this year. The two teams meet again 7 p.m. Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn., when Wambach is expected to play in her 200th career match. The forward will become just the eighth woman in U.S. soccer history to reach that milestone.

CRUNCH TIME FOR LANCERS: The Lancers (8-15), the only expansion team to make the MISL playoffs, won 17-15 at Chicago on Friday thanks to Doug Miller’s last-minute goal and lost 14-11 at Milwaukee on Sunday. They have three games left, all at home, starting at 1 p.m. Saturday against rival Syracuse, which has swept all four matches they’ve played this year, including 15-14 and 16-14 losses in Rochester. I think the Lancers have to win out to make the playoffs. They’re in fifth place, one slot out of the final playoff position, but they’re 1.5 games behind the Chicago Soul. Although the Lancers hold the playoff tiebreaker (head-to-head matchups) with Chicago, three of the Soul’s final four matches are at home. They play league-leading Milwaukee, third-place Missouri and last-place Syracuse at home and at Missouri. The Lancers close by hosting Syracuse (6-15), fifth-place Wichita (7-14) and Milwaukee (17-2).

FLASH DRAFT FIVE MORE: I was on vacation late last week, so I missed putting some of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Supplemental Draft stuff on the blog. Locally, two former Section V stars were taken and, former Aquinas midfielder Ashely Grove, went to WNY. She played in college at Maryland and was taken in the fifth round, 39th overall, and one pick before former Greece Arcadia forward Jessica Shufelt, who went to the Portland Thorns. Here were the Flash’s picks:

SHUFELT TO PORTLAND: Shufelt, a 2008 Arcadia graduate who played at the University of Connecticut, plans to join Portland for training camp in early March, she said Monday. The state Class AA and Democrat and Chronicle’s All-Greater Rochester Player of the Year in 2007 said she and Grove went to the Washington Spirit’s tryout camp in late January and she knew her former UConn coach was talking her up to teams, but even after receiving a call from Portland coach Cindy Parlow-Cone was surprised by being picked. “It’s cool that it happened,” said Shufelt, who helped Ottawa win the past two W-League titles. “I’m excited.” She could learn a lot from Portland’s Christine Sinclair and Alex Morgan, both forwards for the 2011 WPS champion Flash.

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Jeff DiVeronica has covered professional soccer and the Rhinos for the Democrat and Chronicle since the team's inception in 1996. "Devo's Direct Kicks" takes aim mostly at Rochester soccer, but will also highlight the USL, MLS and U.S. national team play. Devo, his nickname since college at St. John Fisher, also hosts two weekly radio shows each Saturday on WHTK-AM/FM (1280/107.3 or www.whtk.com). "Kick This!" (11 a.m.) features soccer talk, while the Canandaigua National Bank High School Sports Show (noon) covers Section V sports. E-mail Jeff at jdiveron@DemocratandChronicle.com.
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